Pan de Elote (Mexican Cornbread)

Pan de elote—Mexican cornbread or corn cake—is very different from typical American cornbread. The batter is a wet mixture with very little flour and sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar. I believe anything that calls for a can of sweetened condensed milk MUST be good.

Sweetened condensed milk is used in many Central and South American desserts. Adding sugar to condensed milk—which is simply milk with its water content partially evaporated—helps extend its shelf life, allowing this ingredient to sit in your pantry for years until it's needed for a recipe just like this one. Sugar also helps thicken the condensed milk, which adds an exceptionally moist texture and sweet, concentrated milky flavor to baked goods like tres leches cake and key lime pie.

After it's baked, pan de elote benefits enormously from cooling in the pan for several hours before slicing and serving. This will help the cornbread "settle" into itself and achieve the ideal balance of density, fluff, and just a hint of crumbliness.

I first tried pan de elote at a roadside stand on one of my first trips to Monterrey, Mexico. Vendors were selling sheets of it for practically nothing. Try this Mexican cornbread at the peak of the summer corn season for maximum flavor.